/nightspots @nightspotschicago

/nightspots @nightspotschicago

/nightspots @nightspotschicago nightspots nightspots

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weekly nightlife section in 20 March 22, 2017 WINDY CITY TIMES RuPaul. Progress For Childhood Cancer Photo courtesy of LOGO Research show, Sun., March 26 Progress Bar, 3359 N. Halsted St., and Vanité will host Progress For Childhood Cancer Research, a special drag show and party, with all proceeds going to benefit the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, Sunday, March 26, from 3 to 7 pm. The party will feature raffles, cash giveaways and, of course, Gentlemen, start your engines ... performances by local drag luminaries Mercedes Tyler, Mimi Marks, Whitney Gaytan and Birdy. Windy City Times is a proud sponsor of this event, along with Ketel One Vodka, Grab Magazine, Cram Fashion, Captain Morgan, Pulp/Ink Spring is never really sprung until the new crop of queens from RuPaul’s make their first and the Lakeview East Chamber of Commerce. showing. And March showers are gonna bring drag flowers thisFriday, March 24, when season nine debuts at 7 pm on VH1. Here is our breakdown of the best viewing parties, both for the premiere and the whole hot mess of a season. Start your engines! Happy 48th anniversary, Baton Show Lounge! Join hostess Dixie Lynn Cartwright and her pit crew at Sidetrack, 3349 N. Halsted St., for the first episode on one HUGE screen, plus dozens of smaller ones. This is Chicago’s o-fficial RPDR viewing party and will take place each Friday throughout the season. Resident Sidetrack divas and Drag Race alum DiDa Ritz will be serving up “Ru-formances” during the night. Start your engines with games, exclusive RuPaul’s Drag Race swag and a bunch of fun surprises. Shantay, you stay after the show for Friday night fun with party music until 2 am. Hometown girl Shea Coulee guest-hosts the premiere at Roscoe’s, 3356 N. Halsted St., along with RPDR alums and , plus Chicago’s very own Trannika Rex. Doors open at 5 and you can bolster your booze intake with the unlimited burger bar from 6-9 pm. Immediately following the episode, there will be a Q&A with the hosts. A them your Qs until 9, when a photo line will form. Stick around to see Shangela, Shea and Naomi performing live at 11 pm and 12:30 am. Did you know that Hamburger Mary’s is an official sponsor of this season’s Untucked? Stop up toMary’s Attic, 5400 N. Clark St., for the premiere party and come back each week, as starting with the second week, each night’s festivities will kick off with the airing of the previous week’s Untucked, just to get you up to speed. Mary’s has developed a special contest for viewers to win bar tabs, cash and other prizes. Doors open at 6:30 for the premiere party and will be open at 6 in following weeks, with the Untucked airing beginning at 6:30 to precede the main Ru-vent. Kick back at The Sofo Tap, 4923 N. Clark St., and enjoy the show with host Thomas Andrews, $7 Big Miller Lites, $4 Fireball shots and $2 PBR cans. And if the show gets you all hot and bothered, continue to heat up the night with their weekly bear party, GRRR, It’s Friday, beginning at 9 pm. A million thanks to special Nightspots Big Chicks, 5024 N Sheridan Rd., has a party with food and drink specials fit for a queen. Strap on envoy Mercedes Tyler for snapping these your heels and snatch that lacefront down from the shelf, because each week, a $15 bar tab will go few pics last weekend at the big 48th to the most creative look. At the season finale party, all winners will have a chance to come back and anniversary celebration for The Baton. compete for the grand prize. Ya don’t look a day over 30! D.S. Tequila Co., 3352 N. Halsted St., hosts a weekly viewing party which promises “all screens, full sound, some drama.” Crew Bar + Grill, 4804 N. Broadway, takes a brief break from the ball sports to gag you with eleganza on all screens with sound, $5 Lagunitas drafts and bottles and $4 select shots. Hydrate, 3458 N. Halsted St., features a $4 Belvedere cocktail from when the doors open at 6 until the end of the show at 8. You are encouraged to get there early, so as to snatch up a top space.

The Porca Loca at PR Italian Bistro. Start off with a burrata: mozzarella and arugula Photo by Bronson Pettitt doused in balsamic, pesto, red peppers and a side of crostini. My dining companion and I recommend the the DISH ravioli costexine, stuffed with savory, tender- Weekly Dining Guide in braised rib covered with butter sage sauce. Also recommended is the pizza Bistro, an intriguing- WINDY CITY TIMES sounding mix of housemade Italian sausage, on- ion, wild cherries, goat cheese and fennel. SAVOR For vegetarians, pansotti pistacchio is beet- stuffed pasta topped with goat cheese and brown PR Italian Bistro butter sauce. The orange zest was overwhelming at first, but we began to appreciate the earthy- BY BRONSON PETTITT citrus balance. Wines, beers and cocktails abound, but try the Stefano Roman and Juliana Montebello-Roman Dancing Buffalo, with bourbon, prosecco, elder- love hosting parties—and it shows. flower liqueur, lemon and sage. Visit the married duo’s PR Italian Bistro (3908 Come dessert time and you’re feeling decadent, tasty and tasteful experience. N. Sheridan Rd.; PRItalianBistro.com) and it’s as Mediterranean cuisine with international flavors. order the salted caramel cake, or if you’re on With a blackboard menu that changes daily, if you were going to their dinner party—a wel- Somewhere between casual, romantic and rus- the brink of a food coma then go for the lemon- coming, friendly vibe where Juliana greets and tic, PR’s expansive glass facade, full-service bar, Stefano “is out shopping four or five times a seats you while chef Stefano prepares creative exposed-brick walls and open kitchen make for a week,” Juliana said. Turn to page 21 WINDY CITY TIMES March 22, 2017 21 Billy MastersMasters

If you’re anything like me (and I believe at least some of you are), you can never have enough Tennessee Williams. Recently, I dashed back to Boston to see Night of the Iguana with Eliza- beth Ashley, Amanda Plummer and James Earl Jones. Last week, it was a play about Tennessee Williams at the Pasadena Playhouse starring Al Pacino, Garrett Clayton and Judith Light. This new play was billed as a “development produc- tion,” but it sure seemed pretty polished, from the star-laden cast to the swanky set to the tick- et prices. Mind you, I’m not complaining—the rare chance to see Al Pacino at work is worth every penny. Billy Masters (right) and Al Pacino. The play is a fascinating character study of the Photo courtesy of Masters final years of Williams’ life told through the eyes of one of his last beaus, playwright Dotson Rader. there was near-pandemonium at Rockwell Table & On stage, Rader was portrayed by Miles Gaston Stage in Los Angeles. Nothing turns me on more Villanueva, and if his name is not as familiar as than talent, and Busch has that in abundance. his colleagues’, he was no less talented (or, for Should you be so fortunate to get to see him, go! that matter, hunky). On March 9, Oklahoma Sen. Ralph Shortey was Garrett Clayton has been on quite a roll. He found in a motel room with an underaged male. starred in King Cobra (based on gay-porn pup Yawn—another married politician found sleeping Brent Corrigan), he was a lead in Hairspray: with a boy. But this Republican was Trump’s cam- Live and, now, he’s holding his own opposite Al paign chair in Oklahoma! The details may make Pacino. That he’s holding his own clad in some the situation worse for him, but I find them quite skimpy undies only gilds the lily. I must note amusing. Police responded to a “check welfare” the breathtaking Andrew Dits, who makes the call from someone who saw the senator and youth most of one brief scene. Judith Light, who never enter a Super 8 motel—oh, the humanity. When disappoints, tackles a character clearly based on the cops knocked on the door, Shortey said he the trustee of Williams’ legacy, Lady Maria St. was alone and refused to let them in. Once they Just—who has been described as neither a lady, threatened to enter with a pass key, he opened nor a saint, nor just! Light is one of those rare the door and police found him with a 17-year-old stage creatures who stalks rather than walks, who boy, who claimed to have known the senator for intones rather than recites, who becomes rather a year. “I used to sell weed to him,” the lad said. than acts. She is never less than riveting. Uncovered texts show the tyke asking Shortey It would all be for naught without a galvaniz- if he could help him make some money for spring ing presence at the center, and Pacino (or “Mr. P” break. The senator said, “I don’t really have any as Light calls him) is certainly that. In a master- legitimate things I need help with right now. ful performance that could easily become a cari- Would you be interested in ‘sexual’ stuff?” The cature, he etches a painfully nuanced portrait of boy’s dad says that his son “has a history of solic- DISH from page 20 an artist in decline. He even captures Williams’ iting himself on Craigslist for sexual conduct.” So almost musical vocal cadence. The play has some I guess he’s into “sexual stuff.” And yet Shortey stuffed lemon sorbet: a frozen lemon carved and rough edges, but it’s a tantalizing morsel of wasn’t arrested—at least not for a week. He was stuffed with light, refreshing sorbet. things to come. Should anyone want my notes, eventually charged with three felonies—engag- PR is just south of the Sheridan Red Line sta- all they have to do is ask. For once, I refrained ing in child prostitution, transporting a minor for tion in the Sheridan Station Corridor, two bus- from spouting my unsolicited opinions backstage. prostitution, and engaging in prostitution within tling blocks of local businesses that will soon be In one weekend, I saw more Busch than I did 1,000 feet of a church! Call me old fashioned, home to a few high-rise developments. in my 30s! The divine Charles Busch was tour- but I think we can drop that last charge if it’s a Founded 12 years ago as Pizza Rustica, PR’s cli- ing California with two very different cabaret Catholic church! Upon his arrest, the State Sen- entele includes families, couples, neighborhood shows and, as a completist, I had to see both. ate passed a resolution stripping Shortey’s name regulars, employees craving an after-work drink, The Lady at the Mike is his loving tribute to lead- from all legislation and barring him from using and as of recently, weekend brunch-goers. ing ladies he both worked with and admired. The his office or parking spot. No—not the parking material runs the gamut—from Elaine Stritch to spot!!! “We morphed into what we are today because we Joan Rivers, from Helen Morgan to Julie Wil- When I can almost see Garrett Clayton’s can cook. We never set out to own a restaurant, son. Like all great artists, he makes the material “busch,” it’s definitely time to end yet another we never set out to move to a bigger space,” said his own without ever imitating. “That Girl/That column. Remind me to tell you all about meeting Juliana, who has a background in real estate. Boy” begins with Dolores Gray’s “Thanks A Lot, Pacino—it’s quite a story. You can read loads of “None of this was planned. We built it and they But No Thanks” and doesn’t let up until Lucille other stories on www.BillyMasters.com—the site came, and here we are.” Ball’s “Hey Look Me Over.” His “Surabaya Johnny” that is into all kinds of “sexual stuff.” Send your Note: Restaurant profiles/events are based was one of the more persuasive I’ve heard—more questions along to [email protected] and I on invitations arranged from restaurants and/ Lemper than Lenya—and makes a real argument promise to get back to you before the GOP asks or firms. for a full Weill/Brecht show. The audiences ate Super 8 for a corporate rate! Until next time, re- him up at Costa Mesa’s Segerstrom Center, and member: One man’s filth is another man’s bible.